Hometeam: Coach-parent conflict splits swim team, city

Wednesday

Mar 7, 2012 at 6:00 AMJan 18, 2013 at 1:40 AM

On a cold morning late last month, Karen Cornetta pushed her chair away from a large table inside a conference room at a local cafe, leaned over and pulled two 4-inch-thick, three-ring binders from a bag on the floor. “Those were much smaller when you started all this,” said her father, John Harasimowicz. Katie Cornetta, Karen's daughter who is one of the main subjects of this story, sat next to her mother, mostly quiet but taking copious notes.

By Dave Nordman TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

On a cold morning late last month, Karen Cornetta pushed her chair away from a large table inside a conference room at a local cafe, leaned over and pulled two 4-inch-thick, three-ring binders from a bag on the floor.

“Those were much smaller when you started all this,” said her father, John Harasimowicz.

Katie Cornetta, Karen's daughter who is one of the main subjects of this story, sat next to her mother, mostly quiet but taking copious notes. Also seated at the table was Karen's mother, Judy Harasimowicz.

The contents of the binders included medical reports, letters written and received, emails traded with city and state officials, and details of one parent's year-long investigation that resulted in Don Lemieux, Gardner High School's well-respected swimming team coach, being suspended and not being allowed to coach the team at the state championships on Feb. 19.

Lemieux, 55, later resigned his position. He remains as superintendent of the Greenwood Pool, a job he has held for 30 years.

This is a story of a legendary, 16-time state champion coach's frustration, an angry, hurt parent who believes her concerns were not addressed, some questionable practice sessions and a school administration unable to reach any kind of a solution until two days before the state meet.

But the outcome baffled many observers, including the city's mayor, led to deeper questions and tossed innocent young athletes into a maelstrom of controversy — made to choose between school and coach.

It's a tale of secret and open surveillance that pitted swimmers vs. swimmers, parents vs. parents, and fractured a program that was a major point of pride for a community needing so much to be uplifted in these tough economic times.

Heywood Wakefield … gone. Simplex … gone. Nichols & Stone … gone. But unlike the city's proud industrial past, there was this championship swim team that trained and competed in a crumbling pool built 100 years ago.

Now that, too, appears to be gone — at least as we know it.

On the cover of one of the two white binders on the table in front of Cornetta is a photograph of Katie in a hospital bed. The picture, Cornetta said, was taken two days before last year's state meet, which Katie, a team captain, did not attend.

That's where this sad story begins.

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Katie Cornetta was resting at home on Sunday, Feb. 20, 2011, while Gardner, the defending champion, was finishing fourth at the state meet. Afterward, Lemieux questioned Katie's absence in comments he made to the media. He said he knew Katie was not feeling well — but so were other team members. He said he thought she would make an effort to attend the state meet at Harvard University.

“Our captain and lead sprinter was not here, and that shocked all of us,” he told the Telegram & Gazette, referring to Katie.

While his quote in the Telegram & Gazette was brief, The Gardner News quoted Lemieux more extensively. That quote was a cause of friction between Lemieux and Katie's family.

“Supposedly she wasn't feeling good,” The Gardner News quoted Lemieux. “We got to the bus she wasn't there. I called her house, they never answered the phone. I was very disappointed in the captain of the team but forget that …”

Cornetta said the coach knew her daughter was ill, that her attendance should not have been expected, and Lemieux's remarks were “unfair and slanderous toward Katie.”

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Van Hursey, who owns Iron World Gym and trains most of Lemieux's swimmers, said he was the first chaperone to arrive at the school the morning of 2011 state meet.

When Lemieux arrived a few minutes later, he phoned the Cornettas' home, but the call was not answered. A concerned parent of one of the swimmers then volunteered to “go pound on their door,” Hursey said.

(As a result of that comment and others, Cornetta later took out a restraining order against that parent, according to Gardner District Court documents.)

“So I volunteered to drive to the Cornettas' home,” Hursey said.

He said he was met at the front door by Karen Cornetta, who said, “She's not going,” referring to her daughter.

After being denied his request to speak to Katie, Hursey said he stressed, over and over, the importance of Katie to the team.

What Cornetta said next, according to Hursey, took him by surprise.

“She said, and I'm paraphrasing, 'I've computed the stats, and if I thought we could win the state title, maybe I'd send her,' ” Hursey said.

Lemieux said he never questioned if Katie was sick, but only acted surprised when asked by reporters about her absence. Lemieux said the family had asked school officials if it was OK for Katie to miss school on Friday and still compete on Sunday. The school said it was.

Hursey said Cornetta also offered him a ride to Boston. And two current team members said Katie sent text messages to teammates on Saturday asking them if they wanted coffee or hot chocolate for the long bus ride the next morning

“All indications were, she was coming,” Lemieux said. “Again, I never once said she wasn't sick. I didn't know what was going on. If she couldn't make it, all she had to do was call, and I would have been fine with it.”

Cornetta sought an apology from Lemieux, and after she did not receive one, Cornetta said Katie filed a 15-page bullying report against the coach with the school department. But director of pupil personnel services John Salovardos determined in a June 9 letter that the complaint “did not meet the criteria of the state law or the school policy.”

The letter went on to recommend “that the building principal and athletic director address Mr. Lemieux's inappropriate actions, primarily addressing the circumstances leading to the article and interview that Mr. Lemieux gave in the local newspaper.”

And that's what happened, according to an email sent to Cornetta by superintendent of schools Carol Daring on Sept. 12.

“Appropriate discussions were held and appropriate actions were taken,” Daring wrote. “Since this is a personnel matter, I cannot share more than that. Please be advised that your daughter will be welcomed and will experience no retribution…”

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Daring's assurances did not satisfy Cornetta. She did not want Lemieux reappointed as coach and made it known to school officials, School Committee members and others.

“How did we know it wouldn't happen again?” Cornetta told the T&G two weeks ago.

“We had no clue what appropriate punishment was,” John Harasimowicz said.

So with Lemieux's contract renewed for the next school year, Cornetta's family pursued another plan. It put together a nearly three-month study of the Gardner High swim program and its relationship with Lemieux's private Greenwood Swim Club. Their seasons run simultaneously and have for nearly 20 seasons.

Even though Katie had suffered a concussion (while training outside of high school), and was not eligible to compete in meets, she still attended most of Gardner High's practices, which were held at 5:30 a.m.

Katie would often sit on the pool deck, Lemieux said, taking notes while her mother and grandparents stood nearby, also taking notes. Lemieux said they also took photographs — a charge they deny.

The Cornettas say their notes prove irregular attendance by some members of the Greenwood team and favoritism toward the Greenwood swimmers.

“It should be fair for everyone on the team,” Cornetta said.

The Greenwood team, which also includes non-high school swimmers, is in the pool most days at 2:30 p.m. Katie used to swim for Greenwood, but left prior to high school.

Specifically, the Cornettas allege some Gardner High swimmers violated Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association Rule 45, which says athletes are “not allowed to miss a high school practice or game in order to compete on a non-school team. And a coach is not empowered to excuse a team member from school participation in order to participate in non-school competition.”

Mayor Mark Hawke said the allegations are baseless. As far he knew, it was business as usual with the high school and club teams sharing pool time in the morning and afternoon.

“The swim team is like a small town where the fire chief is a selectman and also serves on the conservation commission,” Hawke said. “It's been like that for a long time.”

Lemieux said his practices have always been considered open and optional, designed to benefit the individual for the good of the team. In other words, he said, the routine — times, dates and distances — for a sprinter is not the same as that of a distance swimmer. Dryland training and lifting weights often replace pool time, he said.

In fact, Katie attended both Gardner High and Greenwood practices last year, according to Lemieux, even though she wasn't on the Greenwood team.

“I let her swim and didn't say anything. I was trying to be nice, trying to be supportive, trying to make her a better swimmer,” the coach said. “So I don't understand how something that's OK for 20 years — something that was OK even for Katie last year — all of a sudden isn't OK.

“I didn't do anything wrong,” Lemieux said. “I could have made every practice optional (in writing) if I wanted to. Who knew it would come to that?”

•

Cornetta said she presented her allegations of Gardner High swimmers skipping high school practices but attending club practices on the same day to first-year GHS principal Donna Pierce in a meeting on Dec. 14, 2011.

Not satisfied, Cornetta presented the same information to the School Committee on Jan. 4 and again on Feb. 7. Again, she said her concerns were not addressed.

But according to a letter sent by Pierce to Lemieux dated Jan. 17, they were. The letter, which includes a copy of MIAA Rule 45, alleges violations on seven dates prior to Jan. 14.

The letter also details the Cornettas' concerns point by point and states that “anyone who is not on the active GHS swim roster should not be present or practicing with the GHS swimmers.” It also references a “lack of communication with changes in practice schedules or meets.”

Pierce sent Cornetta a follow-up letter the next day (Jan. 18).

“All matters in which you brought up have been investigated,” the letter begins.

It goes on to detail the Gardner High practice schedule and states that “all swimmers are expected at all practices unless excused by the coach or due to illness, injury or personal reasons.” The letter also states: “There was no evidence to support your concern that swimmers were not present for practice the day before a meet.”

In closing the letter, Pierce provided Cornetta with the names, telephone numbers and email addresses of two MIAA officials.

On Feb. 10, nine days before the state meet, Cornetta said she forwarded her information — along with a signed affidavit by Katie — to the MIAA.

The following week, according to Daring, Pierce spoke at length with MIAA officials, who said it was up to the school to determine if the allegations were factual and what, if any, action to take.

The result was that Lemieux was not allowed to coach at the state meet.

Pierce informed Lemieux of her decision in a meeting with the coach and assistant principal and acting athletic director Tim McCormick on Feb. 16, three days before the state championship, which Gardner had won 16 times.

“She told me, 'Don, (the MIAA is) not buying your story,' ” Lemieux said. “I said, 'What story? I didn't do anything wrong.' In the end, I figured I'd take one for the team,” he said, referring to not fighting his suspension.

He officially resigned the following week, but said he had offered to resign three weeks earlier out of frustration in dealing with the Cornettas. But he said McCormick asked him to stay on for the rest of the season.

The day after the Lemieux was suspended, Daring emailed city officials the news, which was met with surprise — and anger — from some, including the mayor, who said the school lacked the evidence to issue a suspension.

“I requested all the correspondence from the MIAA, and to my surprise/concern, there was none,” said Hawke, who serves as chairman of the School Committee. “This was a school decision based on what? I don't know. Having been a three-sport athlete in high school and playing sports all my life, I understand that a bond is formed between players and coaches. I have no idea what the school administration was thinking when they suspended the coach for the final meet of the year.”

This week, MIAA spokesman Paul Wetzell said MIAA Rule 45 — the one Lemieux is accused by the Cornettas of breaking — does not apply to coaches, who are allowed to coach high school and club teams at the same time.

The rule, Wetzell said, only applies to athletes. However, in this case, all of the Gardner High swimmers were allowed to attend the state meet — even those accused by the Cornettas of skipping practices.

But only three of the eight competed. The others chose not to attend in a show of support for Lemieux. One member of the team, a school-choice student, transferred back to her regional high school.

Another team member transferred a month earlier, Lemieux said, but still competed for the Gardner team as part of a co-op with neighboring schools. Both cited dissension within the school as their reasons, Lemieux said.

“(The school administration) should have seen the division it caused in the team from a mile away,” Hawke said. “What upsets me the most is that the people who ended up getting hurt the most are the innocent student-athletes who just wanted to swim.”

The school's decision also surprised rival swim coaches.

“I know the kind of man Don is, and he is not the type that would ever take a disagreement with a parent out on their kid,” one coach said. “It's a shame that the school cowered to the Cornettas and didn't stand in support of man who put Gardner on the map in the swimming world. He should have gotten the well-deserved respect he's earned, and the responsible school officials should have had the backbone to have stopped this before it ever got to that point.”

•

So what happened between Jan. 17 — when the principal concluded her investigation — and Feb. 16 that warranted Lemieux being suspended? And why was the coach, and not the athletes, disciplined?

Emails sent by the T&G this week to Pierce and Daring seeking answers to those questions were not answered.

On the eve of the state meet, McCormick said the school could not discuss the coach's suspension because it was a “personnel issue.”

At that time, Daring said, “The most important thing is that the girls will have the opportunity to swim.”

So, on Feb. 19, Pierce and McCormick served as coaches for the three Gardner swimmers to compete at Harvard, where the Wildcats finished 24th out of 37 Division 1 teams.

According to a T&G reporter at the meet, Katie was on the pool deck that day. So was her mother, a violation of MIAA rules that state “no ancillary staff will be allowed on deck. … Only the individuals listed on the entry form and approved by the school's athletic director will be allowed on the pool deck.”

Emails sent by the T&G this week to Pierce and Daring asking why Karen Cornetta was allowed on the pool deck also were not answered.

The following afternoon, John Harasimowicz, Katie's grandfather, sent an email to the mayor.

It read, in part: “It took personal courage for the three Gardner High School swimmers who chose to compete to do so. The City of Gardner, their schools and their parents should be very proud of them. They held their heads high and competed with dignity and should be commended for their achievements.”

The email also said the three team members chose Katie to represent the team as their captain, but that is not true, according to one swimmer in attendance. She said Katie's mother asked the three swimmers to appoint her daughter captain, but they declined.

Katie was cleared by her doctor to swim in the state meet — on the same day Lemieux was suspended — but was not eligible to compete because she wasn't on the team's roster submitted to the MIAA on Tuesday. Cornetta's medical clearance and the discipline against Lemieux were a coincidence.

“We didn't find out about the coach until we read it in the (T&G),” Cornetta said.

Hawke responded to Harasimowicz's email 20 minutes after it was sent.

“What happened was a travesty and was disgusting,” he wrote. “Your personal vendetta has caused irreparable harm to the young adults on the swim team. You, and your family, are so blinded by your dislike for Coach Lemieux that you cannot see this. The swimmers that did not compete did so in order to make a statement. Perhaps you should listen very closely and try to hear what that statement is saying.

“Ultimately, high school athletics is not about titles, but rather it is about teaching our young men and women the importance of teamwork, sportsmanship, winning and losing, the rewards for hard work, self-discipline, build self-confidence, and develop skills to handle competitive situations. All of this, I feel, you fail to understand.”

Later that day, Harasimowicz returned the email with another of his own, referencing Lemieux's comments about Katie after missing the 2011 state meet.

“The travesty is that had the Gardner School Department acted appropriately a year ago the Gardner High School would not be facing the embarrassment they now must endure,” he wrote, in part. “What is disgusting is that you think we have caused the embarrassment and not the coach.”

On Feb. 25, six days after the state meet, Debbie Strachan, the mother of GHS swimmer Taylor Strachan, one of five to boycott the event, also wrote an email to the mayor.

It read, in part, “It has been an extremely long and difficult swim season due to the Cornettas and her parents. Every chance she could she made it difficult or uneasy or just plain intimidating for my daughter to enjoy her high school swim.

“Taylor is a strong young lady and wasn't easily rattled by her attempts, but still we are talking about a grown woman essentially attacking a high school student, with no backing from the school even when the principal and athletic director were informed of this.

“I have to say that my daughter and her team handled themselves with great respect for themselves, their coach and the school, even though the school clearly held the hands of the people who were causing such disturbances and sat by and basically watched.”

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Lemieux's suspension — and resignation — has also frustrated and confused many of his former swimmers, who hold every state high school swimming record and played key roles in capturing 15 straight state titles, from 1994 to 2008.

“When I heard, I wanted to drive right up there and talk to the principal,” said Villanova University senior Lindsey Hagens, a 2008 Gardner High graduate, who swam in the Olympic Trials. “I wanted to ask her, 'What has changed?' Nothing has changed.”

“It seems like the school threw the coach under the bus,” said Corina Hopkins-Vacca, a 2006 GHS graduate who swam from the University of Minnesota.

Lemieux's departure was also the topic of conversation poolside at the recent Big East Championships at the University of Pittsburgh, where former Gardner High and Greenwood swimmers represented Villanova, Louisville, Seton Hall and UConn.

“We're on different teams now, but we're still very close,” Hagens said, “because swimming for Coach Lemieux was like being part of a family. We'll always be family and our family has a motto: 'From the outside looking in, it's hard to explain. And from the inside looking out, it's hard to explain.' ”

Hagens' father, Matt, knew little about swimming when his daughter joined Lemieux's teams. But he knows good coaching having played basketball for Hall of Famer Jack Curran, the winningest high school coach in history, at Archbishop Molloy High in Queens, N.Y.

“I would put Coach Lemieux right up there with Jack as the best high school coaches I've ever seem — in any sport — period,” Matt Hagens said. “The way he's able to motivate kids and help them exceed their potential was just amazing. I've never seen a coach as dedicated. It just blew my mind.

“He could have coached anywhere, he was that good, but he stayed in Gardner,” Hagens said. “I don't think the area realizes what they have in him. But like the saying goes, 'You don't know what you have until it's gone.' ”

Lemieux's influence extends beyond athletics, according to his former swimmers, who say he placed equal emphasis on academics.

Erica Meissner, a 2007 GHS and 2011 Auburn University graduate, was a finalist for a Rhodes Scholarship. Hopkins-Vacca, Meissner's former teammate who graduated No. 1 in her GHS class, is now a medical student at Tufts University.

“When I was looking a colleges, Coach Lemieux didn't suggest schools just based on swimming,” Hopkins-Vacca said. “It was always academics first.”

Samantha Arsenault Livingstone, a 1999 GHS graduate and 2000 Olympic gold medalist, said what school officials don't understand is that Lemieux was Gardner High swimming.

“The pool is a hole in the wall, a bathhouse, really,” Arsenault said. “But Coach Lemieux transformed it into a magical place. He creates such a culture of positive energy. For me, the experience was life-changing.”

Two weeks ago, Cornetta addressed the MIAA board of directors about its system of school's self-reporting violations.

“What happens when winning becomes more important than following the rules is my question,” she asked the board. “When does the must-win mentality replace integrity? When the ones we trust to follow the rules and make decisions based on those rules, look the other way.”

Cornetta told the board she reported her allegations against Lemieux “all the way up to the top of the school system. But the school system took no action until I sent the information on to the MIAA.”

In the end, Cornetta said, she was looking for one thing.

“We were looking for an apology,” she said. “But that didn't happen, and here we are.”

Dave Nordman can be contacted by email at dnordman@telegram.com.

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